Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK, with one in eight women in the UK developing breast cancer in their lifetime, one person being diagnosed every 10 minutes, according to Breast Cancer Care.
It is essential to look after your breasts by checking them regularly. Breast awareness does save lives.
Breast awareness is the experience of getting to know your breast and being familiar with their normal appearance by looking at and feeling the breasts at different times of the month.
Being breast aware will help you detect early any changes from normal, should these happen. Your breasts constantly change throughout your life, from puberty, through adolescence, the reproductive years and then menopause.
Before menopause, normal breasts feel different at different times of the month. The milk-producing tissue in the breast becomes active in the days before a period starts. In some women, the breasts at this time feel tender and lumpy, especially near the armpits. After menopause activity in the milk-producing tissue stops, and the normal breasts feel soft, less firm and not lumpy. After a hysterectomy, the breasts usually show the same monthly differences until the time when your periods would have stopped.
What to look and feel for
Look out for any change in breast size, appearance, outline, or shape of the breast, especially those caused by arm movements or by lifting the breast.
Look out for any dimpling of the skin or thickening of the skin.
Look out for any lumps or bumpy areas in one breast or armpit that feels different from the contralateral side, especially if new and persistent.
Look out for any nipple discharge, new for you.
Look out for any change in nipple position, nipple pulled in or pointing differently from before.
Look out for any nipple rash or bleeding or reddish breast areas.
How to do a self-breast exam
BreastCancer.org recommends doing a breast self-exam once a month to get used to it. Some professionals find this unnecessary, and they are concerned that this can cause increased patient anxiety and worry.
At Sonoworld, we cannot stress the importance of a self-breast examination enough. You know your body best. Therefore, it is easier for you than anybody else to pick up the earliest changes in your breast.
Any new breast pain, breast lumps or asymmetry, skin changes, skin rashes or bleeding, nipple discharge or inverted nipple must be reported at once to your GP, who can refer you for an ultrasound In NHS and if any positive findings will refer you to a breast specialist for further investigations.
What we offer at Sonoworld
Sonoworld Diagnostic Services offers private ultrasound scans and self-referred breast ultrasound examinations by Consultant Practitioners, MSc. Medical Ultrasound, with over 15-year experience in ultrasound scanning examinations of the breast.
Once diagnosed, and depending on the diagnosis, your GP can refer you for further treatment or follow up in NHS. Alternatively, we can refer you to a private breast specialist should you need a specialist intervention, FNA (fine needle aspiration) or lesion excision.
Let us try to be as breast aware as we can so that we can detect as early as possible the breast changes to prevent later complications.
If you have any breast-related worries, any personal or family history of breast cancer and wish to have a Breast Ultrasound for first diagnosis or reassurance, please do not hesitate to contact us by email or by phone on 0203 633 4902 / or 0788 538 4785.
We have attached a short video on how to self-breast check. Please take a few minutes to watch it and improve your self-assessment technique so you are a step ahead of the game at all times.
To a healthier 2023!
About Sonoworld Diagnostic Services
Sonoworld Diagnostic Services—London is an outstanding private ultrasound clinic offering access to convenient private ultrasound scans, leading specialists and the highest standards of health care.
Our private ultrasound scan clinic is conveniently situated in the world-famous area of Marylebone, London, within the prestigious Hale Clinic. Luxury state-of-the-art facilities combined with efficient healthcare delivery contribute to confidence and reassurance for our patients.
At Sonoworld, we offer Private breast ultrasound scans for any breast lumps you may have found.
Breast lumps are very common, and the breast ultrasound scan is the easiest and fastest way to evaluate these lumps. Ultrasound of the breast uses sound waves to produce pictures of the internal structures of the breast. It is primarily used to help diagnose breast lumps or other abnormalities your doctor may have found during a physical exam, mammogram or breast MRI. Ultrasound scans are safe, and non-invasive and do not use ionizing radiation.
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